Public Consultation and Local Democracy in Re-naming Processes

Recent debates about contested heritage have seen widespread discussion about whether to remove, rename or “retain and explain” monuments, buildings and street names that memorialise Britain’s slave trading and colonial past. These debates are contributing to discussions about how history is constructed and interpreted and to ongoing critical re-examination of Britain’s colonial and slave trading legacies. This research project seeks to understand the role that law plays and might play in such debates. 

Funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (SRG2324\240431) and undertaken by Dr Emily Haslam, Loughborough University and Dr Suhraiya Jivraj Kent Law School, the project asks how councils across the country are responding to controversies about the commemoration of historical figures in the urban landscape. With a focus on street names, it explores how the varying approaches they have adopted have facilitated different forms of public participation and their effects by considering a series of key sites: London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh.  The project further develops a previous study, Haslam and Jivraj, ‘Public Participation in re-naming processes: Navigating Sir John Hawkins’ (2025) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 45(3)